S.T.A.L.K.E.R. devs creating free-to-play MMOFPS at new studio

Veterans from GSC Game World, the Ukrainian developer behind cult series S.T.A.L.K.E.R., have formed a new studio and are working on a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-like free-to-play MMOFPS. GSC Game World reportedly closed last year before it could finish development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The team later said it would continue work on the game, but workers who have moved on from GSC now claim the project is "frozen." The new Kiev-based studio, Vostok Games, formed last month and has already received funding from a local venture capital company in Ukraine. The company's first project, Survarium, is built on its proprietary Vostok Engine, and will release for PC in late 2013. Though Vostok was unable to secure the IP rights for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the studio will tackle the same post-apocalyptic and technology-versus-nature themes of that series with Survarium (concept art pictured). "The concept of Survarium is a next evolution step for the idea of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we've been working on for the last ten years," says project lead Ruslan Didenko, who was also a project lead at GSC. Unlike the previous single-player and multiplayer S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games sold at retail, Survarium is a free-to-play, MMO first-person shooter. Vostok says it took this approach because it wants to allow as many players as possible to try it out and decide if the game is worth paying for.